The Prodigal Blogger, Or Something Like That

I think our friend on the West Coast, Magniloquence, put it best recently when she said this:

It’s mostly just… I fell off the internet. I do that.

…which is exactly what happened to me, starting in June after the mega-dustup at Nashville is Talking – which just kinda wore me out, really, my brain was too tired for a while after that to function – but I kept on trying until sometime in July, and even posted once in August. But for the most part, I couldn’t find time and energy to blog, and dropped completely out of the regional Twitter scene, and like Mag said – I just fell off the Internet, for a while. Or at least parts of it.

But I have been reading when I could, and slowly making my way back to the land of the blogliving. I’ve been reading all this time really, when I can and where I can… but the last few weeks things have started falling back into place where I can maybe find at least a little more time to get back to being an active voice in the community, not only regionally but with WordPress stuffs as well, and all that other crap I always inevitably find myself right in the middle of eventually.

One thing I KNOW I’ve got to do if I’m going to start trying to sort of keep up again is trim down the number of blogs in my feed reader, because it just got out of hand. So much good reading out there but just not enough time. I’m going to whack it down to the locals and a scant few others elsewhere I never want to miss, and the rest I’ll just have to live without. The number in my reader had grown to epic proportions, and one just can’t keep up with as many as I was trying to on a daily, or even weekly, basis.

There are some blogs I’ve tried to read almost daily – since I canceled cable some time ago, dinnertime for me is usually blogreading, heh – and I’ve definitely tried to keep up on what was born this summer to try to hold the regional community together, the fabbo Music City Bloggers, since that way I could kind of keep an eye on everyone as a whole at once and got to where I depended on that for my local and regional blog fix. My hat’s off to my friends and colleagues there – you guys truly picked up the torch and ran with it and it’s fantastic.

I still tried to read NIT when I could, but (as we all know) there for a while it seemed to be about everything BUT what Nashville and regional blogs were talking about, so it became a less frequent stop. Though when I dropped by the other day, I was kind of pleased to see that – at least on the surface – it seems to be more like what it always was, and what it should be if it’s going to continue to be called Nashville is Talking.

In the interim of being mostly away, I missed a lot of milestones and a lot of moments I wish I hadn’t… but I was there, it was just that I was reading or behind most of the time, but of course that’s not like actively being there and participating in discussion or leaving notes. For instance, I have had to catch up on my fellow WP fan Jon’s joy at being a first-time new dad in fits and spurts (she’s adorable, Jon and Katie!).

I missed my dear pal Hutchmo’s birthday and didn’t get a moment to wish him and the lovely missus a happy 30th wedding anniversary (Happy Both, my friend!).

There was the recent news of Lintilla’s upcoming surgery (keeping you guys in thoughts and prayers, Slarti).

Ivy’s grandmother passed away, which made me sad (I am so sorry and please forgive me someday for not having read about it until much much later, Ivy).

Brittney is moving to San Francisco and taking the reins of REAL big city blogging out yonder (congratulations and I’m so thrilled for you and you will be fabulously successful, I know!).

The Vol Abroad spotted what I agree (of course!) is a horrendous case of bad parenting.

The aforementioned Magniloquence! In freakin’ Robertson County, ON CASA DE COYOTE LAND… I saw pictures! I am so bummed beyond belief that I missed out on this opportunity to meet her, but I swear I missed any sign at all of it ’til after it was over (’til today, in fact).

I about fell over after my unplanned sabbatical started to find that suddenly, after alllll these months, out of the blue, Rex L. Camino had started posting on his blog again, which makes me giggle.

Not to mention the fact that Smiley has rather questionable underwear fashion sense (I’m sure there’s more evidence of that on The Dry Spot, though), and Short and Fat admits he is evil. Heh.

Then there were of course so many more – and way too many for me to mention EVERYONE – but all the many others I tried to catch up on when I could. I seem to recall some incidents with The Holy Tara and much more over at my Sista’s place, and thrilled that Sista has gone back to school. Many – way too many – interesting occurrences and days of worthwhile reading over at the House of Newscoma in my Northwest Tennessee general homeland area. Other I try so hard not to miss, such as Chez Bez (who now EVERYONE has met BUT me, sigh). Recovering Baptist. Lindsey at Theo/Geo. Sarcastro’s congenial grumbling over at Watching the Defectives. Mrs. Jag, owner of cool dogs. I like reading about Cranky’s amphibian obsession over at SMB.

Our newer friends who arrived shortly before my “vacation” (who also now everyone has met BUT me) such as Klinde and Grace. Grace’s blog really has become my substitute for a Friday night movie when I really have time to sit down and eat a REAL meal for a change sometimes – I catch up on her blog instead of watching a movie or TV or something.

And more from beyond the regional blogosphere that I still try to catch up on when I can, such as Churlita in the Midwest and Margaret down even more South than me. The always charming and hilarious Neil Kramer and his lovely Sophia.

I wish I had time and space to mention everyone by name but there’s just not enough and there are so many more of you than the ones I’ve mentioned. But I have tried to keep up with everyone, or catch up when I can, really I have.

I’ve got to say, though – and it probably just wouldn’t be a Lynnster post about blogs in general without it – damnable Blogger continues to be a thorn in my side, especially through all this attempting to catch up. More than once did I want to leave a comment for some reason or another, yet it’d be a Blogger blog… and nowadays I cannot comment on any of them at all, no matter what I’ve tried to do. WordPress is your friend, people… or at least it certainly is mine and probably many of your readers. Stupid @&%#ing Blogger.

Anyway, I’m back and here, but taking baby steps at this. I don’t have time these days, right now anyway, for memes and all that kind of stuff that can contribute to an incredible amount of time suckage, I really just don’t. But I’m motivated – at least for now – to write again, even if it’s a lot more brief than many of you are used to. Some of the best and funniest blog posts I ever read were just one sentence long, and that might be what you get some days, others it might be more. But I’m at least attempting to be “back”.

By the way, I see new headers and templates all over the place and I adore the new Tiny Cat Pants header, but of course I would (Happy Anniversary to Tiny Cat Pants as well!). Not all that surprising to me, probably one of my favorite bits of blog post of the year comes from our Aunt B. I don’t know why, I just like this and it makes me smile:

I like the smooch where the smoochee is being a little ridiculous about something that makes the smoochee both exasperating and irresistable and the smoocher grabs the smoochie’s shoulders, backs him or her up against a wall, and presses him or herself full up against the smoochee, maybe with a hand on the back of the smoochee’s head, and the smoocher kisses the smoochee like that should end the discussion.

Anyway. I have missed you all, and I wish there were time right now to talk at length and catch up with every single one of you one-on-one, but there are so many of you and I don’t have that much free time still. But I’m here, and have been, and have been reading… and now I’m hopefully posting again. Bear with me while I scrape the rust off my fingers.

Notes from the Black Hole of the Blogosphere

Well, I’m still kind of out in the void, so apologies, but everything’s OK and also (very important), as most probably already know, Hutch got out of the hospital Monday and is doing mucho better (and writing funny stuff about it on his blog) so all is well. But the rest of you could have won the lottery, or all run off to Utah and gotten married to each other, or there might have been a nuclear war this week and I’d really be none the wiser.

But that should change a little and I should get good and caught up on the blogosphere in general this weekend because I will be guest blogging at NIT this weekend, so I’ll just take this opportunity to order you all to stay home and attached to your computers and write funny and interesting stuff this weekend. Well, it was worth a try!

Conspiracy Doppelganger Sockpuppet Pseudonym Theory Goofy Crap

I’m not linking to it because I don’t care much for the site, but in catching up reading today, few things have ever made me laugh harder than reading the suggestion that I, Lynnster, and former Nashville is Talking blogdiva Brittney Gilbert are one and the same. Ha!

Frankly, I’m flattered, but no, sorry to burst a bubble there. Not to mention I can see where maybe someone might think Coble or Aunt B., or any number of other NIT bloggers, might be a covert second Internet personality of Brittney’s. But if I were much of a blog/comments/etc. reader, I’d be mistaking any number of those folks for Brittney before I’d be thinking Brittney and I might be the same person.

Things Brittney and I have in common:

1. A shared interest in the Nashville blogging community and many of the same friends within that community.
2. We both went to MTSU.
3. We both live with/have lived with longtime boyfriends.
4. We’re both originally from smallish Tennessee towns.
5. We both write, or try to.
6. We both have dogs.
7. Yeah, that’s about it.

Anyway, well, it’s flattering, since I consider Brittney such an excellent writer and a good person anyway, and especially since she is well over a decade younger than me and absolutely cute, but nobody with much of a brain is ever going to mistake us for twins or the same person – certainly not in writing, and especially not in person since not only am I older, but I’m a blonde and she’s a brunette.

But that just goes to show you how reactionary conspiracy theories get started. And I have to agree with someone else, another Nashville blogger that I’m not going to link here, who recently said that people can’t be bothered these days to click on links (his quote), and thus possibly educate themselves more on something (my quote).

And it’s true. A rudimentary and actually very quick review of both my blog and Brittney’s personal blog would pretty much tell anyone that nope, Lynnster and Brittney are two different people. If nothing else, there’s the fact that we’ve both got LOADS of photos on Flickr, and in her Typepad photo albums, that would pretty much prove she’s one person and I’m another. If someone really wanted to dig down and investigate and go through a few more channels, they’d even find a photo of Brittney and I together.

But people don’t want to educate themselves even quickly, or take even a short amount of time to look at stuff that would either back up or refute their idea. It’s easier to not be bothered to click a few links or take five minutes to look around a little bit, and instead just come up with some cockamamie theory and post it on the Web, no matter how stupid one may look as a result.

But that’s okay since, as I said, it made me laugh so much I almost had tears rolling out of my eyes. So it was certainly worth it for the price of my entertainment.

Of course, given the source, since it sprung from the same well that called Brittney a racist, right-wing bigot, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the conspiracy theorist at hand claim that my blog and everything on it – all my photos, my 10+ years’ (hello?!?!) worth of posts, and everything else – was just a front and a cover as someone else’s alter ego because that’s kind of the mentality we seem to be dealing with here, but whatever. It had mucho entertainment value for me, and there’s few people I would be more flattered to be confused with than Brittney – even though it’s totally and completely preposterous – so hey, you know, go for it. For all anybody knows (well, other than those who have met me, right), I might be lying here anyway! Bwahahaha.

P.S. Thanks to my buddy Hutchmo, AKA John H, for standing up over there for me (and Brittney) on this ridiculousness. You’re the bee’s knees, my friend!

KC & the Thumbshine Band

Next time Coble says her thumbs hurt, I am getting the hell out of Dodge and getting as far away from Tennessee as I can, I think.  No Internet, no Twitter.

At least hearing about a day like today after the fact has got to be at least a little less depressing and exhausting as going through it in real-time was for about the past 27 hours.

Not Just MAYBE I’m Amazed

Even on this awful day for Nashville and the whole of Tennessee, I continue to be amazed, shocked, and surprised.

Many of Brittney’s biggest longtime and vocal detractors, outright pretty much “enemies”, and people who just in general disagree with her all the time, are some of the same voices in the comments in her Goodbye thread at Nashville is Talking today.

Unless you are aware of who all the usual NIT players are, you won’t likely know or be able to all that easily pick out who those people are. Because the detractors and “enemies” and disagreers are basically saying most of the same things the others who are hating to see her go are. Most of them are showing an appreciation of what she has done for Nashville and the regional blogging community and her work with NIT in general just like the people who have always liked or agreed with her or been her friends are, and most of them are expressing sorrow at her resignation as well.

That to me speaks MANY more volumes about Brittney Gilbert and her work with NIT than anything.

Unbelievable. Pinch Me So I Can Wake Up Now, Please.

I’m just in shock. Shocked. Sad.

This morning, Brittney Gilbert resigned her position as blog producer at WKRN, the home of the Nashville is Talking blog and blog aggregator, and I just can’t believe it and am so saddened to see her go.

As she has said today, the timing is unfortunate because it’s occurring after what was a particular nasty day of insult-hurling and threats appearing on the blog and elsewhere – most coming from people from other parts of the United States and most who had never even been to NIT before, it appears. But as my fellow blogger and friend Slartibartfast commented over at NIT following her goodbye, those of us who know her and who visit and read the blog daily and participate probably realize, now, that she has sort of been trying to tell us she felt it might be time for her to go for a long time.

Brittney’s hiring at WKRN was a groundbreaking thing that really wasn’t being done at the time in this country. Since then, many similar communities have sprung up elsewhere, but she was the first to really be hired as a blog producer in that kind of format.

I actually discovered her personal blog a couple of years or so before she was hired to blog at Channel 2, having found her through a link on sometimes-MTV-personality Dan Renzi’s blog, even though she was local-ish to me three hours away in Nashville. Generally, only another Twin Peaks fan like me would have immediately recognized her blog’s name, Sparkwood & 21, as the sign of another – that initially intrigued me, as did whatever I read that day. And I found myself coming back to read day after day because she was just so interesting to read.

And I had been blogging/Graffiti Wall-ing for a few years – since 1997 – at that point. But at a time when I had gotten distracted and lost interest and mostly slacked, and especially later when I myself started getting involved with the Nashville blogging community, her efforts on both her personal and professional blogs were a major influence on my getting back into actively blogging, other writing, and other Web work.

I am very sad to see her go, but I understand. For one thing, you just would not believe some of the vicious and vile insults and outright threats she has had to endure since taking the reins of NIT, verbal and even threatened physical abuse hurled her way by mostly faceless and anonymous Internet trolls who apparently think that’s OK to do because she has been a quasi-TV/media personality. Reading some of the other vicious and poisonous and frightening stuff that has been thrown at her that she’s shared with us over time has just made my skin crawl. No one should have to endure that kind of abuse just because they are the producer for a media outlet blog.

And I know that’s not the only reason she has decided to resign. Granted, a position like that puts one in a magnet space for controversy and can often attract that kind of thing.

Still and all, it’s a shame she ever had to endure any of it. I’ve met her, and she’s a person just like you reading here, and just like me, and a delightful one.

And although I fully understand her decision, I have to disagree with her and beg to differ on her statement today that she just wasn’t cut out for the position or that she wasn’t the one for the job, because that’s just not true. She has done a fantastic job of building and encouraging the Nashville blogging community, and I continue to be in shock and awe of just what a cool thing it is.

Thanks to her efforts, there has been not only just an awesome blogging community built, with an incredible cohesiveness to and camaraderie among that community – I have seen time and time again within the community that that cohesiveness is SO strong that often times you see bloggers who on any given day are arguing from totally opposite sides, and even sometimes hating on each other, stand side by side in the blogosphere in solidarity to stand up against some issue that is very, very wrong. Sometimes it’s just taken my breath away to witness it.

It’s been an amazing place. And it just wouldn’t be as it has been and is without Brittney.

Also, Brittney’s efforts have brought a lot of folks together that otherwise might never have met and known each other. Many of us have become not only good friends, online and off, but NIT – as a whole – has become kind of a family of sorts. A dysfunctional one sometimes, and not every loves or even likes each other, and we fight amongst ourselves some days not unlike most families do. “Family” might be pushing it a little as a term, but at the very least, we are most certainly and definitely a community that has thrived and grown and flourished tremendously under Brittney Gilbert’s watch.

I know she will be successful at whatever she does next, and I wish she’d change her mind, but I understand, and I thank her for everything she’s done. And I just hate, hate, hate to see her go. She will be so missed by so many.

And I just hope that she’ll take with her the knowledge that there are many, many people – some who usually or at least sometimes agree with her on various things, but even plenty more who have disagreed with her often and on a regular basis – that most of us disagree with her now and feel that she was, without a doubt, absolutely the right person for that job, always.

So much shock, surprise, and sadness today. I have no more words, just many sighs.

And Furthermore, Your Website Really Sucks

I am so woefully behind after only a week of ignoring my feed reader and trying to catch up in bits and pieces, I may never catch up. In my mostly absence from the blogosphere the past week, there’s been a bit of a dustup going on around some of my main haunts, now reported in Nashville’s City Paper, that’s the type of thing I normally wouldn’t pay much attention to or have much of a public opinion on, but in this case I kinda do. A couple, actually.

Nashville is Talking and Volunteer Voters – the two WKRN blogs involved and from whence this whole thing started with contributing WKRN news analyst Steve Gill basically calling for their jobs on a live radio show yesterday – both have a good roundup of links to the various discussions all over the past two days. Some of the commentary that resonated most with me and shouldn’t be missed came from my fellow bloggers Slartibartfast, Ginger, and Katherine Coble, among many others. The initial flames on the fire were apparently due to some remarks Gill took exception to, made by Carter about our military.

Slartibartfast fairly well summed up most of my own thoughts on the matter, aside from the fact I do not generally listen to or read Steve Gill. But I agree with what Slarti said both on his blog and in some comment discussion around various NIT-involved blogs, and will go a step or two further here.

For one thing, regarding Carter’s statements about our military – in the course of all the other discussions going on elsewhere, I have read some statements about our military which I’m sure are well-meant and with good intentions, but are just a little too unrealistic. While I might not exactly put things quite the way Carter did, he’s still basically right. Military service is an honorable profession, and the human beings serving in the military are worthy of honor and respect, but not beyond reproach.

Carter said yesterday:

When we say over and over that “the troops” are a breed apart and require our unquestioning and automatic support and reverence, what happens is that whatever these soldiers are ordered to do, right, wrong or indifferent, is, by virtue of the soldiers involvement, beyond reproach. Critics of this war thus precede with trepidation and equivocation.

Well, I’m not gonna do it. Do I respect the troops and their service? You bet I do. But I am not going to sit and talk to whomever happens upon this blog like a child on Christmas morning.

I hate to tell you this, my friends, there is no Santa Claus. There is no Santa Claus and the military is comprised of human beings who are worthy of honor — but not beyond reproach.

The military men and women I know are tough enough to withstand my words. They will hear them and either consider them, dismiss them or take them to heart just like anyone else.

He’s right, and bottom line, those serving in our military are just that – human beings. Not saints who are infallible, not superheroes. Human beings. Worthy of respect and honor, but human beings all the same.

My grandfather served in the Navy in World War II. More topically to this discussion, my young cousin, now in his twenties, went straight from high school into the Marines and was in Afghanistan shortly after 9/11, and later in Iraq. He finished out his time and came home, and I am thankful for that. And no matter what I think about the war itself – I haven’t said, now have I? – I am proud of him. He did what he was supposed to, and he did a good job of what he was supposed to.

They were/are both good men, but again, just men. Not superheroes with magical superpowers. They are heroes to me because I love them and because of who they are, but they were/are still just men and human beings like everyone else.

As Slarti said in his post to Steve Gill:

What you are doing is not what our soldiers fight and die for.

And he’s absolutely right. My beloved grandfather, my cousin, and millions of others fought, and sometimes died, for freedom of speech and the right to have an opinion in this country, among other things.

And that doesn’t mean just Steve Gill’s opinion and only other opinions like it.

In short, Steve Gill, you should be ashamed of yourself. All this hoopla is little but total grandstanding BS, and calling for people’s jobs over a difference of opinion is a sissy thing to do and deserving of NO respect or honor. (I’m pretty sure my grandfather would agree that it’s a sissy thing to do, if not have said it himself. My young cousin is a good kid but has a bit of a mouth on him, and would probably just say you need to get yourself a hot, steaming cup of shut the f*ck up.)

And – my other opinion, on an entirely unrelated note – Steve Gill, your website is much too busy with junk all over it, nearly impossible to read without getting a headache, and is simply technically and graphically horrific. Even if I wanted to read it regularly, I don’t think I could because there’s so much crap all over the page it’d be sending me into seizures, and your post text is simply awful. Take a cue from the tech gods behind Nashville is Talking and Volunteer Voters, or Bob Krumm, and clean it up. Jeez, what a terrible mess your blog is. Ugh. Seriously.

Maybe That Late Pizza Lunch Was a Bad Idea

I fell asleep in the chair at the desk earlier this evening while reading blogs (no, I don’t remember whose I was reading) and wound up having this dream that was like a freaky version of The Sopranos crossed with some bad B-movie gangster film of the Thirties or Forties. Except I don’t know if the freakiest thing was because it kept switching back and forth from, like, Capone days to modern times, or if it was just so weird because nearly everybody in it was an NIT blogger (or associated somehow).

The only people I remember from the dream offhand were (all gangsters) Smiley, Hutchmo, Knuck, Jon Hickman, Sarcastro, Mack, and Slartibartfast, except Slarti didn’t look like he does now, he had his ’70s mustache from like 20 years ago. And Mr. Ivy, who I only met for the first time the other day. And Aunt B. was like this Bonnie Parker type walking around with a beret and a cigar and ordering Mack and Sarcastro around (heh). And Ginger and I were like Flapper-era gun molls. And Kerry Woo was on the gangster side too, except instead of really being a gangster, he was like Ming the Merciless from the old Flash Gordon serials, and he had a bald head and everyone kept reverently referring to him as The Evil Dr. Woo. There were probably more people in the dream but those are the only ones I recall for sure.

Man, every time I have a dream that involves NIT bloggers it’s always super freaky. I’m glad I didn’t have the pepperoni.

Looking for a Yummy Investment? Get a Piece of Nashville’s Finest BBQ Joint

As mentioned in the previous post, Nashville blogger fave Mothership BBQ is on the verge of closing its doors.

Location has always been an issue, being on a side street in Berry Hill that just doesn’t get much drive-by traffic at all. Here in Memphis, where BBQ is the only other King besides Elvis, I don’t think our major BBQ places could survive without being in a good location for driving weekday business lunch traffic (or within walking distance downtown for the lunchtime crowd), plus most are in fairly high traffic areas anyway, day or night. I’m sure most do well in the evenings too, but the lunch crowds are probably the meat (pun intended) of the business for many.

Other factors include zoning laws that disallow beer being sold at the establishment. In Memphis, no cold brew with your ‘cue would be flatly unheard of and probably result in a riot.

Jim has found a location in Nashville that is available, where he can sell beer, and that is in a high-traffic area where folks are lined up out the door at lunchtime at other restaurants in the area, among many other improvements. The faithful regular crowd of bloggers and their families, as well as other regulars, will most certainly follow him to his new location as well. There are people in the Nashville area who eat there every single week and some, multiple times a week. This great place, which has gotten consistently excellent reviews and publicity since it opened, has a definite and loyal following, but a move to the new location would likely increase that regular crowd immensely, and bring in new customers constantly.

I’ll let him tell you the rest about the situation and the fine details, just click here.

And here’s a brand new update to the above from Jim with some more specific details. Be sure and read both for a look at the big picture.

In any case, if you’re always looking for potential investments or know someone who might be interested, I urge you to get in touch with Jim ASAP and find out more. Fondly known among the Nashville blogging community as Knuck, Jim’s a good, straight up, and honest guy who always just tells it like it is, which he did on the Mothership’s blog this week. And if you’re interested in possibly investing in Nashville’s best BBQ, he’s got lots more information to share and can answer any questions you may have.

The details are on the Mothership BBQ blog or you can contact Jim directly at (615) 269-7150.

I can guarantee you that if you are interested and can help save the Mothership, you can count on having not only the constant and consistent business, but also undying gratitude, of a bunch of Nashville and other Tennessee bloggers – a group in number that is already large and consistently growing, and reaches across the entire state – their families and friends, and some other regulars (like a top news dude in Nashville who I hear eats there constantly) – as well as many other new regular customers, I’m sure, that just haven’t found the place yet due to its location issues.

Thanks for reading!

A Tiny Coyote Cat Pants Chronicles Weekend

I started this post about last weekend days ago and it somehow turned into the Great (?) American Novel, plus it took me five billion years to e-mail to myself and download all of my crummy cell phone pictures from the weekend the other night. And many of you have already read everyone else’s accounts of the weekend anyway, so now by the time I’ve gotten around to posting mine, it’ll be like old news. Or it’s been so long now, you can just pretend you didn’t read about it before and it’s brand new news. Or whatever. (And by the time I get around to posting about my L.A. trip, it’ll be like ancient history before dinosaurs roamed the earth, apparently.)

So most everyone else has written about the weekend more beautifully than I ever will, but since I got home so late Sunday night and have been going like mad all week long, and haven’t really had a chance to share much other than all of our (mostly mine & Ivy’s) drunken Twitter posts, and had the crummy cell phone pics to share (most of which Ginger and Squirrelly have the same pics, only better and less blurry), here goes.

I actually started off my day with lunch at the Mothership, and arrived only to be pleasantly surprised by who all had shown up, some of whom I knew were coming (Kerry Woo, Ivy, and the famous Mrs. Katherine Coble), some of whom had been maybes (Lesley), some I had no idea were coming and was so pleased to see (Malia & David and their kids, as well as Malia’s sister and fellow Nashville blogger Emily, who I’d not had the pleasure of meeting in the past, so that was great). Mr. Ivy and all three of the kids were there as well, and I’d not met hubby nor Ivy’s eldest before so that was cool too. Then the pleasant surprise of all surprises appeared when Sarcastro showed up with baby in tow, who is just so tiny and adorable and was so very good and pleasant and darn near silent, contrary to his father’s previous reports regarding the largesse and lengthy duration of the little angel who I never heard make a peep’s noise level. I should have thought to take some pictures there, especially of the baby (and ESPECIALLY of a nervous about holding babies Kat holding the baby, but she did great). But I’m not sure they would have come out, as there was some discussion about whether or not the child might in truth be a vampire. But it was the middle of the day, so probably not.

As always, it was great to see Knuck as well, and I truly enjoyed my first ever Mothership BBQ eating experience, having had the combo plate (with the pulled pork requested Kerry Woo style – I love my BBQ a bit crispy as well), the legendary crack-n-cheese, and the also legendary pinto beans – which I don’t generally like pinto beans but just as everyone had been telling me, these were great. And a special thanks to Knuck for donating the end-of-the-day veggies for our chick thing in the country. I was also extra glad I made it for lunch this weekend as, unbeknownst to me at the time I was there, it may be closing very soon. NIT bloggers may not just be Bloggers Without Borders, but Bloggers Without BBQ soon, and that is very sad. If you’re a potential investor who might be interested in helping expand this restaurant business into a better location, get in touch with Jim at the Mothership.

I missed seeing my Sista this trip, who was unable to make it for lunch or for the festivities at Chez Mack, and also hated missing Finn again, who was planning to come but got tied up unexpectedly. Hopefully next trip we’ll make up for it, ladies. Didn’t get to meet up with Smiley this trip either, which sucks, but he was in Sewanee this weekend and I could never begrudge anyone any opportunity to spend time on my favorite Tennessee mountain. Also missed seeing Hutchmo, who was my original planned lunch partner for the occasion and opted to go see baseball in Florida instead, but that was quite all right – I know better than to attempt to separate Hutch from his baseball, and he’ll just owe me another lunch or dinner anyway, heh.

Next, after what was a rather amusing shopping adventure on Thompson Lane, we headed out to Casa Mack. Ivy and Kat rode out with me and our short little road trip was probably one of my favorite parts of the weekend. You just can’t ride in a car with BadBadIvy and Kat Coble for 45 minutes and NOT have an absolute blast, I dare you to try. I’d have been perfectly satisfied with how my weekend had gone if it had all ended there – but wait! There’s more!!!

Most of the details have been outlined many other places so I’ll not rehash every single thing, but I will say that Mack and Aunt B. just totally outdid themselves planning and providing this little soiree celebrating the female contingent of Tiny Cat Pants regulars. In fact, I hesitate to even call it a “little” soiree because it really was not – THIS WAS HUGE! Tee hee. Who knows, maybe this was a test run and Mr. Mack has evil plans of kidnapping us all for his future harem – there was some discussion of everyone going and getting tattooed (after a few more drinks, of course), and it was just a little bit suspicious that Mack had “a place down the road” where we could all go and get ‘em done “right now”, I’ll say that much. But no, we all escaped – this time.

I kid – Mack was a wonderfully gracious host, abundantly so, and I appreciate more than they’ll ever know all that he and our kind hostess B. did to put this together. I had such a great time, and I am totally in love with Mack’s cabin and want to live there, and the woods, and the creek, and everything in the vicinity. And I also want his three awesome dogs while I’m at it. And a majority of the cool stuff he has around all over the place.

But seriously, Mack’s place is exactly the kind of place that my betrothed and I hope to have some day, probably with more mountain and less farmwork, but we could totally live in that cabin and I may have to steal some building ideas if we ever have a chance to build. It is a lovely, lovely place.

The food was incredible and people had brought enough to feed a couple of armies. I hate that I was unable to fully enjoy the real honest-to-goodness tamales Mack had procured from his connection, but I am wimpy about super hot spicy food and I took one bite and almost had a stroke, but no doubt they were unbelievable if you can handle the hot stuff.

And just as with the food, the company was totally incredible and amazing. Besides oh-so-generous and gracious Mack and the awesome Aunt B. (and can I just stop right here and say B.’s new haircut is just as cute as can be and so flattering and suits her so well), there were so many wonderful folks, many of whom I have met before and know well, several who I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time. I was somewhat awed by and felt as if I were in the presence of Tiny Cat Pants royalty meeting the legendary The Professor and equally legendary and veteran commenter NM, who were both just adorable and a hoot. I have heard much good about how wonderful and hilarious SaraClark is, and those rumors were totally true. And I was especially pleased to finally meet the world’s most awesome medical librarian, Rachel, who I have had many many e-mail conversations with but had had yet to meet in person, and am happy to report she is just the most cute and adorable little thing and so pleasant and funny. Those librarian types are wild party animals, don’t let anybody tell you any different!

Then there were all those I know but was equally happy to see, like Ginger, who is always so much fun to hang out with AND makes maybe the best mac & cheese I have ever eaten in my entire life (apologies to Knuck, but Ginger’s M&C is pretty unbelievable stuff, man). Malia, who I’d seen earlier at the ‘Ship but was thrilled to see again, and is such a nice person and whose always-gorgeous hair I totally wish I had. Kate O’, who is such a sweetheart and hilarious and is just one of those wonderful kinds of people who once you’ve met her, it’s like you’ve known her for years and years. KathyT, who is always just so warm and welcoming and you just can’t help but love her to death. The aforementioned Kat Coble, who I was thrilled to finally get to spend more time with getting to know this trip (we got to talk for maybe 30 seconds last time I was in town) and is just an absolute pleasure to know, fun and funny! And the also aforementioned Ivy, who was her usual meek and mild, quiet as a mouse self (yeahsureright)… good lord, I wish Ivy lived with me ‘cos not only would I be laughing my ass off 24/7, but I would be able to get my house finally clean and in order once and for all. As you already saw, Ivy and I were doing quite a bit of Twittering Under the Influence throughout the evening. And last but never least, my fellow West Tennessee sisters, Newscoma and The Squirrel Queen, who are just the most fab and made the party complete.

Another big high point for me was meeting the lovely and friendly and pleasant Mrs. Mack – she had had to work that night, otherwise I would have loved to have been able to hang out with her ‘cos she seems really cool – and Mack’s kids, who I had met before but not really spent much time around, are just awesome and two of the nicest kids you’ll ever meet. But I’ll let Mack keep his kids when I usurp his estate for myself, I just want the dogs.

There were times it was a little hard for me to hear everything and everyone around me ‘cos it was just pretty much non-stop talking and laughter the whole time, which was great – but as near-deaf as I am after so many years of loud music, when I wind up in a group that big and it gets kind of noisy it’s really hard for me to follow everything sometimes, but there was just so much funny and hilarious stuff going on the whole time it really didn’t matter – I’m surprised I didn’t fracture a rib or three from laughing so hard and so much. And even whatever I didn’t hear or hear well, it really didn’t matter – the friendship and fellowship and the whole experience of it all was the same and wonderful.

So, the rest of y’all that were there but didn’t crash overnight missed one of the best parts of all, which was something only ‘Coma and Squirrelly and myself were treated to the next morning – Mack made us the most awesome delicious waffles for breakfast that were just divine! I think I will keep him around as a cook when I take over his estate.

I also saw a bigass Cottonmouth swimming in the creek, which was not so divine – I’m not wild about snakeage – but he was kinda cool to look at, and I was standing on the wooden bridge above him and out of harm’s way so that was okay.

If you want to see better photos (many of the same shots but with better cameras than my crummy cell phone camera), check out Ginger’s, who has the BEST pic of Aunt B. with the Campfield toilet seat (bwahahaha), and Squirrelly’s (who outdid herself with the graphics once again, that banner is so rad).

Leaving Mack’s on Sunday, I didn’t make a turn I should have and wound up in Goodlettsville, but finally found my way back to I-40 and westward and traveled to my Mom’s, where we went out for a yummy lunch and to look around at some cars. Got back to Memphis really late and the rest of the week has been a real bear, but that’s all right

Anyway, a very special and grand weekend, and much thanks to Mack & B for making it all happen. It was awesome and memorable, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.